Thursday, September 20, 2007

SEO - is it really necessary?

Interesting question! As you talk to people, and especially webmasters, you will hear differing opinions. Mostly though, the people who are of the opinion that SEO is not necessary, have little or no knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation and the search engines in general.

You know, those webmasters who maintain that it is the look and feel of a website that is the most important factor. Hmmm. Wonder how they think internet users are supposed to get to your website in the first place? It is true that one needs to find a happy medium between what site visitors want and what search engines want, but firstly they need to get to your site!

The real scary part is that there are still so many web designers out there who really ought to know better. Instead, they are focused only on making money out of clients who more often than not, do not know better themselves and are reliant on their webmasters to give them the best possible option for their online businesses!

SEO is now more important than ever.

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via "natural" (also "organic" or "algorithmic") search results - according to Wikipedia.

By this definition alone, it seems clear already that good and proper SEO is a definite requirement for any website - if it wishes to be successful. The online competition today is fiercer than ever before and getting more so by the day. More and more players are entering the field, and all of them are after that elusive pot of gold they have heard about - internet commerce.

Bottom line - if you want to keep ahead of the competition and secure every possible advantage for your website, one of the most important factors you need is to have it properly optimised. And preferably by someone who really knows what SEO entails.

What is the bottom line?

The bottom line for any person or entity who call themselves SEO Experts remain the fact that you can only be so named if you keep up with the ever changing world of SEO, as these techniques have evolved considerably over the past decade, although the fundamentals remain the same. SEO changes so rapidly nowadays that you simply cannot refer to yourself as someone who has knowledge of SEO, let alone an expert, if you do not spend huge chunks of your time keeping up to date.

The fundamentals of SEO

a. Correctness of metatags
b. Careful research to determine keywords that are as descriptive as possible of your business and area of business - over the past years Google has started showing differing results to it's users depending on their locality.
c. Proper on-page SEO - correct use of keywords in headers and in the text. Also, text on the website and more specifically the homepage plays a crucial role as search engines become more focused on site content and it's relevancy to any search being done.
d. Blog optimisation - Over the past few years blogs have become a virtual requirement for any business that needs to build online credibility and free incoming links.
e. Backlinks, or Inbound links to your website - this part is crucial. Every link to your website is seen by the search engines as a "nod of approval" - you can never have enough. This is achieved in 3 ways as part of the overall SEO strategy of your website:
i. Submission of website to online directories from where backlinks are created to your site.
ii. Article submissions - writing and submission of articles related to your website content (ie business) in order to create yet more links.
iii. Social Bookmarking - the latest in the SEO world. This serves to create one way links and further enhances the website's visibility on the internet.